I find myself changing up my stance a lot when I don't play well for a few games. Curious on opinions on the best pinball stance:
More upright or hunkered down?
Elbows locked or bent?
Leaning on machine or hands lightly resting on machine?
Knees bent or no?
Flip with one finger or two or other?
Just did my first tournament, and apparently the best stance is the one that allows you to lift the machine and walk it over while holding it from the sides. Still not sure how that works, but I saw it happen..
Seriously, it's like a martial arts stance. You don't want to have to transfer your weight forward to be able to nudge quickly.
Foot position doesn't really matter, as long as your weight is centered so you can perform a cab operation quickly.
Left foot forward, right foot back bend at the knee's and then there's the foot work, twirls, kicks and sache's during gameplay that would make a professional jazz dancer green with envy. 
Me all the way. I try to rotate the front leg to give it a rest, but it never feels the same and throws my timing for some reason.
I currently have right foot forward always, and shift between upright and hunkered down and locked elbows/leaning on machine and not, flipping with one finger or two. Maybe I'm overthinking it 
I keep my left foot in front, right foot in the back. Bend the knees and elbows. I find myself locking my elbows a lot and on games with a tight tilt that causes me to tilt more. So I try and keep them bent. I'm very tall so I try and bend more than most to get a lower view of the table. But it's all in what your comfortable with.
Depends on your height too. I know a guy who put longer legs on all his games... For a taller person like me the optimal height, I feel, requires slightly bent knees or an angled body, but if I was three inches shorter I'd just stand normally.
As others have said it's best to be balanced, though sometimes for certain games I feel like being off slightly to one side or the other is better for aim or nudging.
I tend to do an inverse Lyman where I keep my left leg fairly centered and end up with my right leg sticking in random directions
It really does depend on your height, strength, and body type. A taller person may hunch over the machine, while a smaller person may have to take a stance that braces themselves against the floor so that they can nudge effectively. I would be reticent to say that there's one correct approach for every person on every table in every situation - the same force behind a nudge in a braced stance versus one in a relaxed stance could, hypothetically, differ in strength enough to be the difference between saving the ball and tilting out. I've heard of people use multiple fingers to gauge how hard they're hitting the flipper button or for timing their flips; everyone has their own systems and idiosyncrasies.
Honestly, there are so many variables that even starting to think about it makes you feel like you're overthinking it, but analyzing your stance and the stances of others is a valid thing to consider when thinking about play style and breaking down how to play the game.
Does science still matter? If so, there is research showing that the closer you get your face to the action, the more of your field of vision is filled and the quicker your brain can process everything, as if time is slowed down! But I guess you'd have to do it consistently to tune your brain into it, and my old back couldn't take that much slouching.
I stand with one foot in front of the other, and I'm starting to wonder if that makes side saves much more difficult...as it always throws me off balance.
I'm also somewhat tall, and I have to imagine that having a stance where your eyes can see everything without moving your head is helpful. I see some tall people moving their head up and down a lot to follow the action.
Quoted from ryanwanger:as it always throws me off balance.
I'm sure. If it throws ya, your weight was not centered.
Quoted from jonesjb:So what is the consensus?
Here is what I’m going with currently. Right foot forward, left foot back, knees slightly bent, elbows slightly bent, not leaning on machine, flip with two fingers on the right hand and one finger on the left hand. And then randomly move feet/kick a lot 
Wanna join the discussion? Please sign in to reply to this topic.
Great to see you're enjoying Pinside! Did you know Pinside is able to run without any 3rd-party banners or ads, thanks to the support from our visitors? Please consider a donation to Pinside and get anext to your username to show for it! Or better yet, subscribe to Pinside+!
This page was printed from https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/best-pinball-stance?hl=bendit and we tried optimising it for printing. Some page elements may have been deliberately hidden.
Scan the QR code on the left to jump to the URL this document was printed from.
Indianapolis, IN
